Mists of Pandaria - Blizzcon 2011 Recap
Blizzcon has been really exciting this year and Blizzard definitely had a lot of things to show us! It's time for a giant recap of all the panels, we will probably have a lot more content over the next few days but this should keep you busy for the moment!

We also added details from the interview appearing on the web, we'll probably see a lot more of those soon.

Level 3 AbilitiesBlackout Kick
2 Dark Force - Melee range, Instant
Kick with a blast of energy, causing 28 physical damage to an enemy target. If the target is killed by blackout kick, you are returned 1 Dark Force.

Level 5 AbilitiesFlying Serpent Kick
8-40 Yards range, 25 Seconds Cooldown, Instant.
Soar through the air towards a targeted enemy, knocking them down and stunning them for 2 seconds.

Spinning Crane Kick
Instant, 2 Lights and Dark Forces
Requires Stance of the Drunken Ox, Stance of the Fierce Tiger.
You spin while kicking in the air, dealing 23 damage every 1 second to all nearby enemies within 8 yards. Movement speed is reduced by 30%, last 6 seconds.

Level ?? AbilitiesStatue of the Jade Serpent
5 Sec Cast
Summon a statue at the target location. Anytime you deal damage, a nearby friendly target within 20 yards of the statue will be healed. You can have up to 3 Jade Dragon Statues active at a time.

You all have to be kidding me. If you actually like this garbage you are so blind with fanoi-ism its not even funny. The class is an obvious "fuck you Bioware" I mean come on their "Jab" ability generates "light force" and "dark force". AND the class has no auto attack. This entire expansion is just Blizzard stealing other games ideas, because they can't come up with anything anymore. I mean how the hell are they going to have an expansion with no main villain ? plus the animations look retarded as hell.

vanilla wow didn't have a main villian, just saying..it was just random lore characters thrown in randomly.

This seems to be the most interesting quote of that day... Mainly: What's "not high enough" and what would be the "premium model" ?

Here's what it's referencing from the interview:

VB: A lot of massively multiplayer online (MMO) games are experimenting with a “freemium” model and finding varying degrees of success. Obviously, World of Warcraft is not sinking. It doesn’t need to do the DC Universe Online thing where it’s like, “Oh, we’re free to play now, let’s hope this saves us.” But what’s Blizzard’s stance on the freemium pricing model? Do you see it as a viable option for an existing or future game?

PS: It’s a very interesting business model and approach. Whether or not we will end up doing that at some point or not, I don’t really have the information to share. But certainly it’s possible that could happen with an existing product that we have. I think what you tend to see is that happening when games are on a decline or they don’t have a user base that can support itself through subscriptions. So then they’ll introduce the new model in hopes of being able to generate a different type of revenue to support that community and ongoing content. So it certainly is possible, if we find ourselves in that circumstance, or if we come up with a game where we think that’s the right business model, the most appropriate for players to experience it. We don’t have any opposition to the concept, it’s just that at this point we haven’t decided to make a game where that is the model. But that doesn’t mean that we won’t.

Urgh... bad animations. The WoW engine isn't made for close combat (like SWTOR is), I fear it's going to look extremely silly on humans for example. Also the spinning kick, make that just a quick "roundhouse" animation with a "cleave arc" instead.

Don't judge something only because you like it a lot or don't like it, judge it by the way it is made. For the moment the pandaren models look extremely funny and ridiculous, the monk's animations look retarded as well and anyone stating the opposite is blind or an extremely biased fanboy. But since it is not even alpha me thinks that in the end they will make the new race the best when it comes to animation and models.

This comment is all over the place and sounds like the faux-philosophical nonsense I see in these forums everyday. What are you trying to say, exactly? That others shouldn't judge a book by it's cover until they've seen it? No, that can't be it because then you go on to make a glaring personal opinion and then follow that up with an attack on those who don't share said opinion. AND THEN you say it'll all work out in the end and they'll be awesome?! Did 3 different people write your comment are do you just have multiple personality disorder?

ANYWAY - I feel bad for the haters bashing on the Pandarians. These obviously didn't see the Animation/Art panel. If they did, they would know that the animations for the Pandarian are 10x more involved than any race before it and actually use -brand spanking new- engine tech for said animations. They can stretch and expand like a physics based object relative to their animation - This is brand new to WoW! They are also the first characters to receive the new "cosmetic" do-dads: their belt has custom physics-based animation. Palladin's will receive librams, Hunters will get an ammo pouch/quiver, Warlocks might get chains, etc.

Personally, I felt like I was watching a Pixar animated character in a WoW setting and, to me, that is just awesome! The expressiveness of the model and the fluidity of the animation involved in it is a huge game changer for WoW and I'm really glad they talked about going back and re-doing the classic models after having added the new tech to the Pandaren.

---------- Post added 2011-10-23 at 08:38 AM ----------

As a follow-up, don't base your Monk animation opinion on the small clip on the front page. They showed the animation in action, in detail, at the Art panel and I personally think they'll look just fine on other races. Now, the models themselves need the work-up and will probably get a rigging job to make sure they animate well in the short term, but long-term, it'll all work out.

Blizz said they were going to do a total rigging pass on the other races for this class, so, again, I think that while your concerns are warranted, have faith that Blizzard will make them look as good as they can with the limited models available to them. An (I assume you meant Orc) Monk would look strange, but, I thought Tauren Palladins would look strange, too. They're new animations, and a fast hand-to-hand combat animation at that. It'll just take getting used to.

Monks are awesum to play, i used to play monk in neverwinter nights, witch wow copied all the classes from i guess and added a few new. So i am looking forward to it, i might even get back to wow! yey awesum expo

No I meant Ogre / Oger, you now, the guys like Chogall, who once served the horde ?
I remember neutral Burning Crusade Ogers to be around tauren sized and rather civilized.
They would be a great alternative to double faction pandas.

In my eyes, wow has totally lost every bit of it's seriousness. Really, there's this cataclysm,thousands dying,thousands suffering, and there's this colourful childish shit that looks like kung-fu panda for 8-year olds.
This video just made me not want MoP anymore, considering i did want to try it out on release.

Are you forgetting about kezan? Goblin starting area? and you're asking where did all the seriousness went? GTFO. You obviously don't have the mental capacity to comprehend anything.

The ONLY thing that is bugging me at the moment are the ..well (imo) silly names of some of the abilities. I love the chi aspect, but stance of the drunken ox ..and light/dark force? lol kinda silly on my own part but I think of Jackie Chan in Drunken Master being a character in Star Wars :P

I am wondering, as well, about how other races will look while doing these moves. I am going to roll a femme dwarf monk, but I am eager to see Draenei pump out some kick and roll action!

I personally won't be playing a Pandaren, I will end up making one to feel its playstyle and to check out the starting zones.. but I am eager to play beside one! I am one of those people all for new races, I would be extremely happy if they added two new races every expac(or in this case one)! I'm all up for diversity.. so playing with Panda bears, gnomes, humans, werewolves, spacegoats, purple elves, and other short fatties in a raid situation sounds like loads of fun!I also wonder what everyone would be using as their arguements if "Kung Fu Panda" never came out. Oh, and for the big question! I wonder what color they are going to give the Monk class! (and there is a forum post about it haha)